This thread has been a long time coming. Post up your old Shoguns here...

I'll start with mine.

1991 Katana purchased second hand in June 2009, in this condition:

My goal was a cheap & reliable commuter, but this bike has now become my no. 1. It wasn't until I got her home and started tinkering that I realised that this could have been a fairly serious bike in it's day... Forged dropouts, full Shimano Exage 400ex groupset with Biopace chainwheels, Tange Infinity cr-mo frame with 26.4mm seat post.

So, I, uhhh... spent a bit more than planned... (it's OK my wife doesn't browse this site...) but this is the result:

We've covered almost 1,200km in the past few months. I started commuting fairly slowly (once per week - it's 21km each way) to get into it, but now I'm doing it at least 3 times per week. Trying for all 5 days this week...

How about this one........1986ish Shogun Prairie Breaker Pro team issue. I bought this new back then for $1200 with a tax return cheque. It was red/white and black with full Deore Xt and tioga farmer john and farmer johns cousin tires. Raced it in the second ever Mountain Bike championships in the ACT as well as many other races in NSW. Rode in the snow with studded tires , up and down about every trail the the Blue mountains , Royal National Park , etc etc. Flinders ranges , Broken hill area , South Aus and Victoria. Used it to get into trout fishing spots and commuted.Also spent several years as a work place hack for courier services. Now some 23 years on it is still my 1 and only bike. Although I do have a Rocky Mountain I just bought to restore.Specs... Tange prestige hand made on these early frames Mavic 217's Bullseye hub on rear , Chris King front Sugino crank with only one ring plus pauls chain guide Suntour pro pedals XT rear mech 7 speed Xt V brakes Avid Levers Syncros stem and seat post Brooks saddle Noah's arch bar Pauls thumb shift converter Schwalbe marathon supreme tires Mavic head set Ringle seat post skewer Litespeed titanium wheel skewers

My original intention was to set it up as a load carrier, using an Xtracycle. Never got around to that, due to the extra costs. It became a regular commuter when my MTB was out of action getting a new drive train. Last year I gave it a facelift with the North Road bars. These were surprisingly very pleasant to use in traffic (if lacking in aero qualities)

The Brooks saddle was a freebie, donated by a generous friend. It has been impecably comfortable - it's been on two and three-day cycle camping tours and I rode it on a 200k Audax ride on Saturday including 45km of gravel. No saddle soreness at all

whitestivo wrote:I think your katana has an identical sibling...How did you make your headstem higher like that?

Yeah, I've seen others the same come up on Ebay now and again. I dunno if they only made the Katanas in fluoro orange at one point, but it certainly seems that way. Haven't seen any others out on the road yet.

I stripped the bike and overhauled all of the bearings, so when I reinstalled the stem I left it at the "minimum insertion" mark. My core is too weak to go any lower... but I'm getting there.

Where is lemmiwinks? He's got two sweet Shoguns that would fit right in here.

So we get the leaders we deserve and we elect, we get the companies and the products that we ask for, right? And we have to ask for different things. – Paul Gildingbut really, that's rubbish. We get none of it because the choices are illusory.

I was wondering when this thread may come about, I have 5 shogun metros. 2 are tagged as main frame cromo, 1 is tagged as cromo, these all have tangaloy forks. 1 is tagged tange MTB butted tubes and has very meaty fork tubes but in 700c. All of these are 1" steerer tube. The other one is tagged templite 4130 cross tubing on the frame and forks and is 1 1/8 steerer. I'd rate these last 2 as very good frames for anything other than racing

here is the one I am riding now as my utility run around bike-

this bike was meant to be a short term thing but I am still riding it, It is the old dogy main frame cromo. picked it up for $22 and just added racks, guards, lights and changed pedals. It came with the orange drink holder and I still haven't swapped it out for a silver one. might do that today. The one thing I dont like is the high bb, the tange and the templite both have a slightly lower bb

Here's my old early 90's shogun Katana, bought in late '05 from Rozelle markets for $50... she needed a little TLC as a gutter had attacked its wheels some time in the past

"..think I might ride it out on tonight's dinner ride", I commented to my wife, who responded with a fairly good attempt at the rolly eyes smilie... "oh, you laugh.." I returned, and, yes, I made good on that remark

Switched the wheels with some decent second handers, a general service & polish and away we went! Had to sell it earlier this year to finance the purchase of a carbon fibre avanti, but still came out well ahead thanks to fleabay

Wish I had pictures of my mate's early 90's Trail Breaker, the infamous "Green Machine". The thing must have done a million miles and I put a few hours into getting it back on the road a couple of years back. Over a BBQ last year, I asked how it was going... "put it out on the pickup last month" he said "..and you didn't call me, because..." I replied"Oh, I thought your wife would get upset about having another bike around" Such a waste... hope it found it way into the hands of a retro lover

Wow , 6 Shoguns and the thread is dead I would have thought there would be at least 7 or 8 people who like them Actually I spotted a red /white / black prarie braker team issue today in Redfern Sydney with a lady riding it. 1986 ish in mint nick by the look of it. Nearly crashed my car!! Its the only one other than mine I have ever seen. Come on guys who has a nice old Shogun...

timax wrote:Wow , 6 Shoguns and the thread is dead I would have thought there would be at least 7 or 8 people who like them Actually I spotted a red /white / black prarie braker team issue today in Redfern Sydney with a lady riding it. 1986 ish in mint nick by the look of it. Nearly crashed my car!! Its the only one other than mine I have ever seen. Come on guys who has a nice old Shogun...

I have almost finished rebuilding and upgrading my wife's Shogun Mixte.

I'll post some pics when its done (hopefully over the Christmas holiday).

fearenside wrote:Pardon my ignorance but what is the history of Shogun ? Where are they made? are they a branch of Falcon bicycles in the norh of England?

I don't know their early history, but would love to find out. All I know is that they moved production from Japan to Taiwan at some stage in the late 1980's, and I think they're still manufacturing there. They're currently being imported by Bikecorp.

Just stumbled across this post, not sure how I missed it previously.So I thought I should add the details of my Shogun. I'm not entirely sure of the origins of this bike as I inherited it some time ago and have resurrected it as my only roadie and commute bike about 18 months ago.From my investigations the components place this Shogun Samurai circa 1988. Gear is mainly Shimano 105, Brakes, Hubs, Front derailleur, Rear derailleur is Shimano 600, Crankset is Sugino VP 130 and rims Araya.

love this bike.

PS. I know I should have washed the bike before taking the pictures, maybe next time.

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